range to the Atlantic coast where it and the native wild dog are the chief scavengers.
The measurements of our group of birds tally with the average given for the condor, tho it is said that a species inhabiting the heights of Equador has a much larger extent of wings and it may be a larger bird. The male's length was four feet one inch, with an extent of wings of nine feet. The female, the exception in this family of vultures, was smaller than the male, measuring but three feet seven inches in length, with a wing extent of seven feet eleven inches. The young bird (there are said to be usually two) was a female, three feet in length with what seemed unusually large feet. She was clothed in a mouse-colored down with wing pinions and tail feathers just approaching maturity. Her collarette of white had not yet appeared. Judging from the history of the condor, since it is said to spend the first two years of its life in the nest, this young bird must have been at least a year old.
The question of the age of the young specimen is an interesting one, in view of
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male (at right) and female south american condors;
photographed from freshly-killed specimens
the fact that the statement is made in at least one publication that the young condor remains in the nest for nearly two years. Our specimen was taken during the latter part of the first autumnal month in the southern hemisphere. If it was born during that season it could not have been more than four or five months of age. It does not look reasonable that the bird could have been in the nest since the previous warm season. The snow and ice of the winter of 1904 in Patagonia came during the early part of May leaving little time for the maturity of the fledgling preparatory to the weathering of so severe a season since it would still have to depend on its parents for food. From the immature condition of its feathers, tho it was large in body, I am of the opinion that this bird was about four or five months old, and that it would have remained in the nest until the following spring when it would have been able to fly and hunt with its parents, thus leaving the nest in one year. There being but one young bird in the nest would tend also to discredit the accuracy of the statement that there are two eggs deposited in a nest.
